Abstract
Sustainability is here to stay, with or without high level processes such as the UN Agenda 2030 or the G7 commitments. There is no dispute that any kind of development needs to be sustainable for the planet, including its 7.4 billion inhabitants, flora, and fauna, to survive this millennium. However, the costs, risks, methods, approaches and scope of sustainability are disputable. These how-when-where-who-questions have often been determined—albeit not implemented—at the highest political levels. In that respect, the G7 summits must be seen as trend-setters for the international sustainability discourse and as tracks ensuring the big-picture continuity of the topic. By zeroing in on the G7 summit in Elmau in 2015, this chapter confronts some of the most intriguing and, at the same time, most complex themes surrounding sustainability in the past decade: voluntarism versus state control; global development versus sectoral approaches; and national versus internationalised initiatives.
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Notes
- 1.
Examples of GVC-oriented multi-stakeholder initiatives include the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, the Italian Action Plan for Bangladesh or the Dutch Sustainable Garment and Textile Sector Agreement. Germany also targets other sectors and their specific GVCs, such as palm oil, cotton, cocoa and bananas with sustainability-oriented MSIs.
- 2.
With PPPs, the shift in responsibility, risk and accountability envisaged is usually one from the government to the private sector. In theory, a PPP results in the public partner becoming more market sensitive, including being less risk averse, while the private partner accepts more social responsibility, possibly accepting lower-than usual profit margins. This may constitute, in part at least, one of the outcomes of an operational MSI but it is not a primary driver for MSI engagement.
- 3.
Other sectoral MSIs preceded efforts to introduce more sustainability in the textile GVC: the German Initiative for Sustainable Cocoa was founded in 2012 and the Forum for Sustainable Palm Oil in 2013. Like all German sustainability MSIs, they are financed by the BMZ and operationalised through secretariats set up and run by the German International Development Organisation (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ).
- 4.
This so-called Review Process commits all members to concrete goals which have to be progressively developed and demonstrably pursued. The individual goals of the members are based on key issues and indicators, which were jointly defined by specialist working groups. As of 2017, the members are submitting individual road maps on a voluntary basis as part of a pilot phase. As of 2018, the roadmap submission will be mandatory and will have to publicly demonstrate individual progress of the member concerned on an annual basis. The member’s achievements will then be made public in an individual performance card which will contribute to the joint annual progress report of the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles.
- 5.
In 2014 the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) signed an agreement with ILO on the financing of ILO programmes in the Asian textile- and garments industry.
- 6.
At the first meeting in Ramboulet, France in 1975, the “Group of Six” (G6) was an unofficial forum which brought together, upon invitation by France and Germany, the heads of the richest industrialised countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. One year later, Canada joined as member and the forum became known as G7. Between 1997 and 2013 Russia was part of the group, making it the G8 until its suspension in 2014 due to the annexation of Crimea. From 1981 onwards, the EU was invited to participate (as EC) in those areas in which it had exclusive competences. Over time, the EU’s role has grown and it was gradually included in all political discussions on the summit agenda and took part in all summit working sessions. Today, the EU has all the responsibilities of G7 membership but is not counted in the titles of the Summit (i.e. there never was a G9).
- 7.
The only radical change during those years was unrelated to the substantive content of the meetings. Rather, it was the 2nd March 2014 announcement of the G7 leaders that they would suspend their participation in preparations for the Sochi Summit 2014. On 24th March 2014 this was followed by the G7 announcement not to attend the Sochi Summit and, instead, to hold a G7 meeting in Brussels on the scheduled dates, namely 4th–5th June 2014.
- 8.
Co-regulatory models typically provide more industry involvement than statutory regulation and rely on widespread industry support for the objectives of regulation. They require periodic monitoring by a (statutory or non-statutory) backstop institution to ensure effectiveness and may require enforcement activity.
- 9.
Self-regulatory systems rely on a strong alignment between the incentives for participants and the wider public interest. Membership is voluntary and there are no formal legal backstops to enforce the rules of the schemes.
- 10.
For differences between PPPs and MSIs, see Sect. 3.3 above.
- 11.
The Ise-shima Progress Report 2016, Section 2–4 does not yet contain the analysis envisaged for the Elmau Commitment on Responsible Supply Chains (which was marked as ‘new’) and no score was given to this commitment due to the absence of agreed baseline data for 2015.
- 12.
Apart from the direct financial contributions, the BMZ also financed a secondment to OECD to oversee the MSI review process and coordinate the G7 follow-up.
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Serrano, K. (2019). The Grand Vision of G7 in Elmau: Quo Vadis, Sustainability?. In: Schmidt, M., Giovannucci, D., Palekhov, D., Hansmann, B. (eds) Sustainable Global Value Chains. Natural Resource Management in Transition, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14877-9_3
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